WINNER: Spore
Publisher: EA
Release Date: 09/08/08
ESRB Rating: E-10+ – Everyone 10 And Older
Underneath the dark cloud of DRM problems, Spore is an undeniably creative, innovative, and ambitious project that has managed to capture the interest of many thousands of players. Console versions may come in the future, but there is little doubt that this PC version will be the most robust and customizable of them all.
RUNNERS-UP: Sins of Solar Empire, Crysis: Warhead, King’s Bounty: The Legend
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PC Sleeper Hit of the Year Award
WINNER: STALKER: Clear Sky
Publisher: Deep Silver
Release Date: 09/15/08
ESRB Rating: M – Mature
STALKER: Clear Sky is a fantastic expansion pack to one of the best PC games of all time. Despite some bugs, Clear Sky brings players back to the massive, intriguing world of The Zone, one year before the events of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Featuring new gear, a stronger focus on squad combat and relations, and many other enhancements and additions, STALKER: Clear Sky is very likely one of those great games that you may never play, but you should. The original STALKER, required to play Clear Sky, can be had for well under $20 on eBay and shouldn’t be missed.
RUNNERS-UP: Nikopol: Secret of the Immortals, King’s Bounty: The Legend
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PC Creativity of the Year Award
WINNER: Spore
Publisher: EA
Release Date: 09/08/08
ESRB Rating: E-10+ – Everyone 10 And Older
There were at least a couple of games this year that took gaming to a new and different level. On PS3, there was LittleBigPlanet, and on PC, there was Spore. Again, DRM woes aside, Spore took the entire Sims concept by Maxis to a vastly new level. The critically acclaimed game has captured the attention of many thousands of curious players, and for their efforts and results in this ambitious project, EA and Maxis have much to be proud of.
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PC Most Hotly Anticipated of 2009 Award
WINNER: Deus Ex 3
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Release Date: TBA 2009
ESRB Rating: M (Likely Guess)
Trying to select just one game as the most anticipated title for next year is a very difficult task. Looking forward, there are a lot of choices, but we’ve settled on Deus Ex 3 as our primary choice, mainly because several of us PC gaming veterans remember the original Deus Ex so fondly and have longed for a similar experience ever since the disappointing Deus Ex 2. Details of Deus Ex 3 are only recently starting to surface, but hopes and expectations are already very high.
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PC Best Adventure Game of the Year Award
WINNER: Nikopol: Secret of the Immortals
Publisher: Got Game Entertainment
Release Date: 09/25/08
ESRB: T – Teen
While we haven’t had the good fortune to play all of the adventure games that came out this year for PC, we were all very impressed with the artistic style and intriguing story of Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals. Gamers play as Nikopol, a young artist in search of his father in a futuristic Paris, France. The beautiful graphics and logical puzzles kept this fast paced adventure moving while comic book style cutscenes filled in details in between areas. It was a lot of fun and provided adventure gamers with more action and intensity than most adventures in that several sequences had the main character being killed if he didn’t solve a puzzle quickly enough.
RUNNER-UP: Jack Keane
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PC Best Re-Release of the Year Award
WINNER: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
Publisher: Atari
Released: 09/16/08
ESRB Rating: M – Mature
One of the best games from last year that not too many people played for whatever reason was The Witcher, a third person action RPG by Atari. Fortunately, an Enhanced Edition was released this year and this two disc set included the original game, two new adventures, an adventure editor, bug fixes, improved loading times, improved graphics, and additional dialog and other in game content. Given that the price is at or below what The Witcher was originally, this Enhanced Edition is a great buy for everyone that missed it the first time around.
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PC Best Space RTS/Combat of the Year Award
WINNER: Sins of A Solar Empire
Publisher: Stardock
Released: 02/04/08
ESRB Rating: T – Teen
Sins of A Solar Empire surprised a lot of gamers, ourselves included, when it came out early this year. Recently a full expansion pack was released for the game, if that gives you an idea of how well it’s doing. Sins of A Solar Empire took on the ambitious task of giving players an RTS game that covered both space and planetary management and strategy and triumphed. Fans of Homeworld would do well to check this one out, but Dark Horizon by by Paradox Interactive should also be considered.
RUNNER-UP: Dark Horizon
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PC Best “Is It Time To Upgrade Again?” of the Year Award
WINNER: Crysis: Warhead
Publisher: EA
Released: 09/16/08
ESRB Rating: M – Mature
Last year’s Crysis was an intense first person shooter that pushed the boundaries most PC gaming rigs, forcing a lot of players to upgrade to get the full experience. This year, a sequel, Crysis: Warhead was released and once again provides an astounding visual experience, but of course it too requires a powerful gaming rig to play. If your machine and can run Crysis well, you’re in decent shape, but for most of us, playing Warhead in high detail meant it was time for an upgrade. Fortunately, given the price of RAM this year, upgrading wasn’t too painful of an option.
